cheesie

I was supposed to attend the Xberry party last Saturday but couldn’t coz I had a business trip to Korea. The date changed at the last minute, so that threw me a Curveball (pun here) of sorts since the means to be in two geographical locations at one time is not generally known to the average man. However, the wonders of modern technology managed to bring you these pictures:

…a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away. I hooked up with Ringo, KY and Xin and arranged for dinner at Fong Lye Taiwan Restaurant. It’s been over a month and I realized I haven’t even blogged about it until I was browsing through my archives. I didn’t manage to get a shot of Fong Lye’s exterior too, coz the place was closing when we finally left. I have been meaning to reshoot the exterior without the shutters half closed, and went back last weekend.

Fong Lye Taiwanese Restaurant is a franchise operation that is constantly packed, even late at night when we went. It’s pretty amazing how these Taiwan/HK/Chinese eating establishments can maintain such a high capacity in the current economic situation. The place is literally packed when we arrived. Fong Lye Taiwanese Restaurant has different seating arrangements to cater to different groups of people and we got seated at the corner before ordering our food.

KY had the Pork Intestines Set Meal (RM 17.80) rated as spicy by Fong Lye. He was seated too far away for me to taste his meal but he thought it was pretty good. I can’t actually remember if I ate his pork or not, since we were staying at the Boulevard Studio Suite at that time and I took advantage of the free beer at the Executive Lounge.

Ringo had the healthy sounding Hot & Spicy Dim Sum (RM 16.50) after most of what she ordered wasn’t available. I remember having some of her dish – it was pretty good, except for the tofu. I don’t like tofu. I’m more of a meat person but two pieces of something I had from her order was great.

Xin, for some mysterious reason, did not order a main dish at all. She had the Beef Roll (RM 10.30), which we all had a piece so she was left with only two slices. It tasted pretty good though but a tad overpriced for what is tantamount to a souped up popiah.

Doris went for the Taiwan Braised Beef Noodle (RM 19.80). It is served with several side dishes, like most of the meals. The side dishes contain various snacks and vegetables and makes the presentation immaculate. The Taiwan Braised Beef Noodle is spicy and piping hot, with a rich broth that must have taken a herd of cows to make. ;)

I went for the Three Varieties of Supreme Diced Chicken (RM 19.80), which turned out to be the best dish of the night. The chicken is tender, and cooked to perfection. This dish is also amazingly spicy, something that always rates highly in my books. The chicken claypot is literally full of chillies!

I love this dish and would do a return visit to sample it again (despite it numbing my taste buds for a while). Those who tried it also agreed and pronounced it Good (TM).

Ringo also ordered this weird desert called Peanut Snow Mountain (RM 8.30) that we all shared. It tasted gooey and saccharine sweet and elicited quite a number of jokes related to scat (not skat, the card game, and certainly not scat as in “go away”). It was alright as a dessert though.

The total came up to a RM 151.35 for five people, inclusive of a beer on my end and drinks for everyone else. Fong Lye Restaurant is a great place that opens till (relatively) late so check it out at The Gardens @ Mid Valley if you’re into Taiwanese food. It’s definitely worth a try.

I dropped by Cheesie’s condo earlier this morning to pick up the carton of Marlboros that she had gotten for me duty free during her recent trip to Shanghai. It’s the first time I’ve been to her place and it’s a really nice condominium unit with great security. I’m thinking of getting one myself once my paycheck stabilizes – it’s just about what you would pay for rent, except you get to own the property at the end.

A big thank you goes out to Ringo, who has kindly contributed to my chances of getting lung cancer. ;)

I was in KL about a month ago to…er, attend to my sister’s wedding arrangements and met up with Cheesie at O’Briens before I was scheduled to fly back home. I have gotten a new external hard disk and while transferring photos over, I realized that I have several shots with Ringo after lunch.

Cheesie left me with a very good impression, she’s very down to earth and has a bubbly personality, which makes for a great dining companion. :) Anyway, we went outside for a bit of camwhoring after lunch – some of the photos were taken by passerbys at 1U but Ringo has perfected an excellent technique of taking photos.

She taught me how to take self portraits of us using one extended hand, which I never really got the hang of. It’s her 4th blog anniversary at her own domain so on head over and wish her a happy blogniversary. :)

I was due to fly back to Sibu last night and since I had some time to kill (and also coz I wanted to meet Ringo ;)) I managed to get in touch with her and meet up with the big cheese at O’Briens in 1U.

This is the delicious dairy product herself, in her stealth mode disguise. She has the exact same cell phone as mine.

O’Briens is known for it’s gourmet coffee and handcut sandwiches…

…and their tagline “See your food made fresh in front of you”, kinda like an open kitchen thing, except it’s an open counter of sorts.

Cheesie went for the healthy option, with the Smoked Salmon on Shambo (RM 13.50) under their Low Fat Lifestyle menu, interestingly dubbed “Guilt Free Food” with everything having under 3 grams of fat.

This is the Peach Blush (RM 10) that she ordered. My first impression was that she seems to wear a lot of bling. This girl has color coordination – most of the articles she wore has gold trimmings!

I went for the (much) less healthier option of the O’Briens Crambo Club Hot Toastie (RM 16.50). The sandwiches at O’Briens are all served with crisps, which is a nice touch. I love putting Pringles in sandwiches, it makes the texture with white bread (untoasted) very interesting. Crispy!

I also had the large Cappuccino (RM 8.50) which comes with a shamrock froth finish. I have seen Guinness doing that for draft stout in some bars, it must be an Irish thing. ;)

Cheesie has a very bubbly personality and I felt very comfortable talking to her. We also had a lengthy intellectual discourse on methods of improving Cheesie’s Wardrobe. Heh! It was great meeting up with you Ringo! Jesus, now I sound like a fanboy. I have also noticed that I will be needing Botox on my forehead very, very soon. ;)

…and no, this is not an advertorial nor was any payment (monetary or otherwise) arranged for me to do this Cheesie post. =D